I've used these guys for mahogany in a nice solid body guitar and my 8x20 conversion.
Blue Moon Cuban Mahogany
Very good to deal with.
John
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I've used these guys for mahogany in a nice solid body guitar and my 8x20 conversion.
Blue Moon Cuban Mahogany
Very good to deal with.
John
Wista uses quince wood, rose wood and ebony. Presently they can not buy cherry wood due to shortages of the wood and environmental restrictions on the wood. The quince wood is coming from China.
Folks,If anyone needs fine wood, lofted for 10 to 50 years, quarter sawn, concert instrument grade (mostly) I build one off classical, acoustic and bass guitars, renaissance lutes and an occasional middle eastern oud plus experimental/folk based instruments. I have MUCH wood (ask Eddie) and can sell some to those on this forum who have the need for that very fine camera or holder design lurking your creative unconscious .... Pickup only is most logical... Storing this much wood has been difficult and space consuming over the years so it has become valuable and generally unobtainable anywhere else (read: expensive) walnut, swiss and domestic pear,sycamore,rosewoods,maple(figured&unfigured), paduk,figured white oak,tulip poplar,local cherry,etc,etc. I,ll be 72 this September and nothings forever. I'm keeping enough for those lurking in MY creative unconscious. Also reducing my extensive collection of hand planes. I'm in the Woodstock/Ashokan area of NY 11 mi West of Kingston.
If I were going to build a camera, I would strongly consider using a quality second tier wood, but then laminate the outside with mahogany. I've got a solid mahogany camera that was made about 30 years ago that has split due to dryness, perhaps it wasn't aged properly. You can make a more stiff, warp-free camera from plywood or pine or whatever, then laminate the outside so that it appears solid (walnut, mahogany, etc). The wood shops I've been to sell this super thin laminate cheap.
Dimensional stability and machinability are paramount. That's why woods like cherry, walnut, and pattern mahogany are traditional choices. But even these need to be properly
cut and thorougly cured. True pattern mahogany is getting to be a scarce commodity. I think Dick Phillips was the first guy to make up a custom plywood for camera use. He used thin sheets of cherry to keep the weight down, impregnated these with penetrating expoy, then laminated to fiberglass. Now you've got folks throwing carbon fiber sheet into the mix. Anyone for honeycomb nanofibers? Bet the material science folks up on the hill
here could come up with something interesting.
"I thought they used mahogany salvaged from bars closed by prohibition."
This is the usual source given and the framing/panels would have ideal for camera making.
The ban on Mahogany came around 1940, although the quality of the available wood as new, had been deteriorating since the 19th Century.
I think it is more likely that modernisation, rather than prohibition, released most mahogany planking.
I always thought the way to go if I where to build a camera would be to look for an OLD wood process camera. The type made of mahogany or cherry.
I have one in the garage a 20x24 with a large thick 60" rail and two big wooden standards.Lot's of stock high quality Kiln dried cherry/mahogany wood. I figured the camera would yield several new cameras . it certainly cost me far less then buying high quality kiln dried wood .